PRESS RELEASE – 72^nd SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF COMPETITION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

72^nd session of the Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina was held in Sarajevo on 20^th November 2013 with the following adopted:

Decision establishing that undertaking Apatinska pivara Apatin d.o.o., Trg oslobođenja 5., 25260 Apatin, Republic of Serbia, has abused its dominant position on the market of distribution and sale of beer on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina by refusing to sign Purchase-sale Agreement for 2012 with undertaking  Preduzeće za spoljnu i unutrašnju trgovinu i usluge (Company for external and internal trade and services)  Dejan komerc d.o.o., Ozrenskih srpskih brigada 38A, 74000, since it applied different conditions for the same or similar type of activities with other parties thus placing the undertaking  Dejan komerc in an unequal position in the market.

For the above infringement of the Competition Act, Council of Competition has fined undertaking Apatinska pivara in the amount of KM.430.000,00

Namely, during the proceedings Council of Competition has found that undertaking Apatinska pivara has dominant position on the territory of Republic of Srpska and that it does not have significant competition based on the market share of other beer producers and distributors. In addition, since undertaking Apatinska pivara is part of the Molson Coors group, containing also undertaking Zagrebačka pivara d.o.o. Zagreb and undertaking Pivara Trebjesa d.o.o. Nikšić, whose beer is also distributed in Republic of Srpska, this market share is increased to 60,0%, additionally strengthening dominant position of the undertaking Apatinska pivara, i.e.  Molson Coors group on the relevant market of Republic of Srpska.

It is important to point out that  dominant position of an undertaking is not prohibited, under Article 10 of the Act (note –  dominant position is meant when one undertaking  has more than 40.0% share in a relevant market), and Article 4 paragraph (1) of the Regulation on defining categories of dominant position, but abuse of a dominant position in the relevant market is prohibited through the conduct of an undertaking whose object or effect is exclusion or “closing” of the market, or restriction or distortion of effective competition, and if that conduct is done by an undertaking  on its own initiative.

Since the Council of Competition indisputably established that the undertaking Apatinska pivara has a dominant position in the relevant market, and consequently cannot impose quantitative restrictions on interested undertakings, which implies a distribution system in which the vendor (in this proceedings, the undertaking Apatinska pivara) determines the criteria for selection of distributors which are only qualitative in nature, in terms of the nature of the products or services that are the subject of the contract, and which are unique for all distributors who want to join the distribution system, and that cannot be applied in a discriminatory manner, i.e. cannot  directly limit the number of distributors in the relevant market.

By not signing Purchase -sale Agreement for 2012 with undertaking Dejan komerc, undertaking Apatinska pivara abused its  dominant position  limiting the market, since it  prevented entry of this undertaking on the market of beer distribution of the Republic of Srpska through a legal impediment, i.e. by refraining from concluding Purchase -sale Agreement for 2012, and applied different conditions in relation to other undertakings with which it concluded Purchase -sale Agreement for 2012, thus excluding  the same (undertaking Dejan commerce) from the relevant market and therefore putting it in an unfavorable competitive position.

                          Public Relations Department

   From the Office of the President of the Council of Competition